Samsung Galaxy Note II Review

Samsung Galaxy Note II is the phablet child, hypothetically speaking, as if the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 hooked up. The Samsung Galaxy Note 2, to date, is the largest smartphone on the market. It has a massive and vibrant 5 and a half inch screen, equipped with the improved S Pen plus improved apps, hyper-fast quad core processor, Android (Jelly Bean), capable of 4G LTE speeds, and in the U.S. soon available on five major wireless carriers. Looking to go large… well the largest this holiday season? Read our review to see whether you should by this phone/tablet hybrid or not.

Video Review

Target Market

It is my personal opinion that the Note 2’s larger size will appeal best among males with larger hands to accommodate such a larger display- or basketball players, with women as they typically have a place to stash the huge phone, those script savvy individuals that fell in love with the stylus, and those enthusiasts that are attracted to the benefits of a giant touchscreen as a tablet but want the flexibility of a smartphone not tethered to Wi-Fi.

Design

Samsung Galaxy Note II with S Pen Exposed

Device design and overall software follows Samsung’s initiative of “nature”, just like the S3. Think of it as a larger S3 with a hair less curves. It measures 80.5 width by 151.1 length and is 9.4 mm, weighing 180 grams.

Samsung Galaxy Note II Massive Screen

The first attraction of the phone is most notably the display, boasting a gorgeous 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED (1,280 x 720 pixels resolution). Pictures and text look extremely sharp and scrumptious on this screen, you can’t help but see everything. Samsung smartphone displays have always been superior, and this ain’t no slouch. And even though it is larger you would assume it would drain the battery, however the bigger chassis fits a grander battery. The screen alone is a conversation starter… I can’t even count how many times I used it to take a photo and people ask, “what kind of phone is that?”

You’ll find the same button configuration as the Galaxy S3; power on upper right, volume rocker on upper left and central home button yet flanked by two responsive soft buttons for Menu & Back. No dedicated mini HDMI or MHL port but Samsung intends you to go wireless and incorporate this into your DLNA setup for streaming & sharing media. I choose to swap the standard back plate for the protective flip cover (it doesn’t act as total phone protection against drops but great when slipped into a jacket pocket to guard the screen.) Then there’s the removable and massive 3,100 mAh battery that can get you well through the day, even as a moderate/heavy user.

Tucked snugly in the bottom right corner is the magical S Pen like the one present in the Note 2 10.1 inch tablet. Pulling it out vibrates the phone and makes this suction sound effect but more conveniently unlocks the device (if no password lock has been preset) and launches the S Note app geared towards jotting notes.

Features

The Samsung Galaxy Note II is loaded with new features… we’ll condense and get into the main features!

S Pen

Samsung Galaxy Note II with S Pen Close-up on Stylus

The pen is half the height of a pen and far thinner, it’s rounded on three-quarters and flat on one side- this stops the stylus from rolling off a table. It comes to a tiny pointed ball tip, something you’ll appreciate as the pressure and sensitivity translates extremely well. It only works on the this device and it’s far superior than variant C Pen which only works for the S3. It features a button, when pressed and held while drawing a line upward it will reveal an launchpad. Here you can press the button and draw preset symbols you can invoke quick shortcuts to things like “? weather”, “@ contact name” to email, “! location” for maps, “# contact name” to call, or “~ contact name” to text.

My earlier quibble about the S Pen being a little too sensitive on general selection actions is partly due to Airview, however, when used on other advanced features, it’s awesome sauce! When this is turned on, it allows you to get to enhanced features just by hovering over things; i.e. hover over an email in the ‘Email’ app (doesn’t work in Gmail app) and see a summary of the content, same goes for photos in the ‘Gallery’ app, documents in the ‘S Note’ app, reveal hidden drop-down menus on webpages, and scrub through video stored on your device.

If you love note-taking or scrapbooking, this phone is for you. It offers a cool feature to draw and crop out just about any element on a picture or webpage then send it to the S Note or Scrapbooking apps. To do this, you simply press the S Pen’s button and draw around what you want, applicable apps will appear along the bottom, tap one and your cropped image will be saved there.

S Note

My overall opinion of the S Note app is that it is OK… can be tedious. If you’re dedicated, it can be rewarding.

My overall opinion of the S Note app is that it is OK. Yes, it brings many of the features discussed above alive, however, I find using it is a bit rigorous. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the learning curve, but accidental handwriting marks, moving around, moving elements, constant switching back and forth between modes- can be tedious. If you’re dedicated, it can be rewarding.

Samsung Galaxy Note II S Pen Quick Commands and Cropping

Gripes aside, you can concoct a slew of media in S Note including; handwritten doodles, text, pictures (from gallery, camera, or those you’ve cropped), maps, record audio and even video. There are many predefined notes to give you an idea of how detailed a note can be. You can share your note, however, only with other Note 2 devices, I believe Samsung missed the trick here… why not allow it to share to the S3?!?

Gallery

Samsung Galaxy Note II New Gallery Views Timeline and Spiral

The photo gallery features a few improvements such as the ability to create and organize your own ‘Albums’ in addition to the automatic method the phone does. There’s a ‘Timeline’ view that stacks photos in sort of a 3D pyramid you can scroll through. For a bit more fun, there’s a ‘Spiral’ view of your photos in a 3D spiral. For a bit more fun, the Note 2 allows you to write on the back of photos by tapping the Menu button then ‘Draw on image”.

Virtual Assistant & Google Now

The Note II features Samsung’s version of Siri, it can create appointments, send text messages, call folks, get the weather and boat-load more. It’s funny how many Android enthusiasts label Google Now a virtual assistant when it’s not. I consider it an advanced search assistant, as it cannot schedule appointments (not yet at least). Also, you will have to download/update Google Search to get Google Now as it’s not available as on pure Nexus devices. Additionally, you lose the swipe from the bottom-up feature that launches Google Now.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy Note II Sample Picture with Manual Settings

The cameras, both front and rear in combination with the new software provides for superior cameras. The front-facing camera is 1.9-megapixels, capable of 720p HD video calling or those vanity shots without the need of a mirror. The rear-facing shooter is 8-megapixels, capable of 1080p full HD video recording. If you’re a pro photographer, you’ll appreciate all the settings you can configure to give a DSLR-like experience over the ‘Automatic’ point-and-shoot default mode. You can dig into settings like white balance, exposure, ISO and image metering, and configure focus.

Just like the S3 you get all the photo goodies like; Burst shot (just press and hold the shutter button to swiftly take 6 pics per second up to 20 photos), Best shot (take up to 8 photos, help you pick the best and toss the rest or not), Face detection, Panorama, Share shot, HDR (High Dynamic Range), Buddy photo share (to automatically share photos with newer Galaxy devices), plus it introduces a few new. Like Best face, when selected the phone will snap a few pics and when you review the results, tap the yellow box on each face to pick the best face from the selection of each face. Lastly, there’s a new Low light shooting mode.

4G LTE

[On Sprint] in the Chicagoland area, I didn’t have an LTE experience

Again, like the S3, Samsung followed their successful strategy of offering the powerful phablet on virtually every carrier on the planet, and in their respective flavors of 4G. The version in this review is for Sprint. Even though Sprint just launched LTE in the Chicagoland area, I didn’t have an LTE experience. On average I got 2 mbps download and 3 mbps upload- weird. Using AT&T and Verizon LTE devices, I get on average 13 mbps down and 3 mbps up. I even get 14 mbps down and 1 mbps up on average with T-Mobile’s bastardized 4G HSPA+. Typically when an LTE area is newly launched you tend to get over-exaggerated results as few people are on it. However, I got the reverse and really hope this will not be the norm. Check the screenshot below of varied results from different dates, times and locations.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 4G LTE Internet Speedtest Results

Call Quality

I’m happy to say call quality was excellent! The caller on the other side in my conversations said this phone had the best audio quality of all the phones I’ve called them with. For example, when there was no conversation, the other caller had to check whether I was there as it was complete silence. Kudos to the manufacturer and the carrier.

Performance and Battery life

the Samsung Galaxy Note II is the most powerful smartphone*

Hands down, at the time of posting, the Samsung Galaxy Note II is the most powerful smartphone (give a week or two and I’ll have to scratch that statement, see mounting opposition from the Nexus 4).

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Performance Benchmark Tests

For now, it is a beast of a phone thanks to a 1.6 GHz quad-core processor! In the performance test illustrated above it tops Quadrant, Antutu and Geekbench- blowing the Phone 5 away and even some Android tablets. It handles any and everything you throw at it, even high-end games without any problems. Speed and performance alone are reason enough to grab it!

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Battery Power Chart

I used the Note II moderately to heavy and it lasted well over one day, more like a day and a half. Attributed is the larger 3,100 mAh battery of course. I must note, that you should use the charger that comes with the phone as it wont accept a charge if using anything with a higher output. One minor quibble is how long it takes to charge, but that’s expected with such a large battery.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

(4.65 out of 5)

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Note II? There are a plethora of reasons to buy the Samsung Galaxy Note II, a few include the massive & gorgeous screen size, the S Pen and advance note-taking features plus quick commands you can use, near latest version of Android, the cameras including next level features, superior call quality, 4G LTE (hopefully your carrier and area of use is without hitch), not to mention the processing power of a computer in your pocket. The Note 2 is a really big phone, too big for most, unless you’ve become accustomed to large Android powered phones. Its size is its gift and curse, and if size scares you- then run away, but I would highly recommend this to anyone in the target market!